The Veep Debate

Phew...the veep debate is over. My very disorganized and truncated thoughts:

Ifill was neutered. Palin was better than expected, but still much too folksy. She devoted perhaps 1-2 sentences in each response to acknowledging the question put to her, and then veered off into factually dubious Obama attacks. Biden started weak and ended strong. His moment of emotion over his hospitalized children was authentic and very powerful. Palin started strong, but her collection of talking points and anecdotes grew thin quickly. Is it elitist to want a veep that speaks in proper English? Has their ever been a veep that says, "you betcha" or "gonna"? Not in their kitchen, but on a national debate? Oh, and Palin seemed to indicate that she thinks that the veep should have MORE power. I'm sure after eight years of Cheney that may not be what America's looking for.

I had a blast reading the journalists who liveblogged during the debate. Here are some great liveblogs:

• Marc Ambinder, of the Atlantic: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
• Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo: Part 1, Part 2
• Andrew Sullivan, of the Atlantic

The snap polls I've seen so far are all giving it to Biden. CBS gives it to Biden, 46% to 21%. CNN's poll gives it to Biden, 51% to 36%. Perhaps most troubling to the McCain camp is that only 46% of CNN's poll subjects thought Sarah Palin was qualified to be president. That's only a 4% gain from before the debate. That's not going to cut it.

I think that Palin did stop the bleeding, however...and McCain's got to be hoping that the tidal wave of criticism he's been facing over his drastically unqualified VP pick may subside for a while.